1/11/17

If you’re going to have to pay David Wright for the balance
of his contract, what role would be best serve on the club?

A lot of people have advocated that he move across the
diamond to 1st Base I’m guessing primarily to relieve him of the
burden of having to attempt to throw out runners. I see this move being disastrous if for no
other reason that it would require a lot of extra preparation which would tax
his already fragile body even further. A
first baseman, while throwing relatively little, is involved in many more plays
than is the third baseman. Let’s go back
to 2014 when the Mets last had more-or-less steady play from Wright and Lucas Duda
at the corners. Wright had 83 putouts
and 231 assists to go along with 15 errors for a total of 329 chances. Duda, on the other hand, had 1108 putouts, 82
assists, 7 errors and a total of 1197 chances.
So moving Wright across the diamond would effectively nearly quadruple
the number of times he touches the ball defensively, not something you want to
do with someone with back issues.

If you were to move him somewhere to minimize the bending
and throwing issues, then the OF might be more suitable. There a right fielder logs fewer than 300
chances in a year. Unfortunately Wright
is 34, slowing down, has had throwing problems and would also need many extra
reps to learn the outfield.

No, my conclusion is if you are going to stick with David
Wright you’d better plan on him staying where he needs no extra preparation for
fielding beyond the stretching exercises for his back. So if he’s going to play 3rd base,
where should he appear in the lineup?

Although traditionally he has been a middle of the order
hitter, the fact is that no one is sure anymore how much power he has
left. It may be time for him to reinvent
himself into more of a line drive hitter with a good eye and high OBP. Consequently I would advocate having him bat
2nd with lefties like Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson or Jay Bruce
behind him. I’ve never been a big
advocate of Curtis Granderson as the leadoff hitter, and if they appear to want
to use Jose Reyes in the mold of the Cubs’ Ben Zobrist, then he should be the
primary leadoff hitter. Against righties
he can bat left handed, then the righty Wright, then one of the myriad of lefties
before getting to the righty Yoenis Cespedes.

While I’m no physical therapist and have no idea about
kinesiology, just common sense would dictate that there’s less torque required
to hit singles than there is to drive the ball over the wall. If you took this approach with Wright, could
he convert into the type of hitter that Keith Hernandez was – some power but a
good approach at each AB and a chance to hit .300 nearly every year?

If you’re the Mets, short of reaching a buy-out arrangement for
his contract, what would you do with David Wright?

Make him the manager? A similar, but better hitter felled by back issues was Donnie Baseball. He hit .304 with 6 homers in 372 at bats in his 2nd-to-last year, and .288 with 7 homers in 458 at bats in his last year. Effective to the end, and adapted well to his limitations. I saw that "In his 2001 Historical Baseball Abstract, statistical guru Bill James ranked Don Mattingly as the 12th-greatest first baseman of all-time. In his comment to the ranking, James described him as "100 percent ballplayer, zero percent BS.""

Wright's only hope is to do similarly. And hope, like Donnie did when he averaged 112 games his last 2 years, that Wright could effectively play that many. But Donnie's issue was likely not as severe as Wright's.

Batting him 2nd? More running, more sliding. Recall that in 2015, his early season slide into 2nd knocked him out for most of the remainder of the year - he is fragile. He should be traded to an AL team to DH. But who would want him, even in that role?

My hope? If he needs to retire, do it either in spring training or in an April farewell.

I'm one of those who favors a 1B platoon-life for DW if he can play at all. That would fit with Mack's player/coach/manager-elect scenario. Whether he is physically capable of playing has more to due with the effects (on his back) of swinging the bat, which supersede the strain of scoops at 1B or throws from 3B IMO.

Wilmer has to get the majority of reps at 3B. TJ & Jose can fill in around the horn and even the OF assuming your going with 12 pitchers, a 1B platoon & 4 OF's. So we're back to one of Duda/Grandy/Bruce being dealt by April for Conforto to (a) share CF w/ Legares (Grandy dealt); (b) regular RF (Bruce dealt); or (c) share 1B w/ Wright (Duda).

Personally, I like (c) with at least one of the others gone by July, Conforto back in the OF & D.Smith sharing 1B with Wright.

Lots of familiar faces and no new ones other than the two minor leaguers Rowen and Burns. Or was it Rowan and Martin. Or Burns and Allen. it seems like it was since their respective heydays since we added a player.

The BIG question is will David if he can't play anywhere near good/avg. will he do a Cuddyer and walk away (with of course a huge settlement) for the betterment of the team. If anyone would do it you would think it would be him....we will see. Did anyone hear anymore about D. Smith's size?